Sunday, March 4, 2007

Transcript of Live Chat with Vittorio Storaro, ASC

Moderator (Dec 16, 2000 1:00:32 PM)Welcome. Vittorio Storaro is joining us today from his home in Italy.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:01:48 PM)Bon jorno, Cinematographers Guild! I'm really glad the Guild changed the name a few years ago to Cinematographers, not Photographers.

George Spiro Dibie, ASC (Dec 16, 2000 1:02:52 PM)Buena Sera, Vittorio! I understand you just returned from the CamerImage. What were your reactions to what you saw and heard?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:03:23 PM)It's always great to be part of CamerImage journey, because it's really the best festival for cinematographers. Unfortunately, in many film festivals, they underline the work of the director, the actors, the producer. But to me, it's very strange, because the cinema is a language of images. And images as seen through the main concept of light. So without the cinematographer, cinema does not exist.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:04:10 PM)It's ridiculous that in all festivals around the world, with rare exceptions, do they recognize the work of the cinematographer. CameraImage was the first and most important cinematography festival. It is a great chance that we have to interchange knowledge with our peers. It's great that we can continue the research in cinematography with so many representatives of companies in one single place.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:05:28 PM)I do believe cinematography is an inner journey that we do within ourselves. And it is wonderful when we can cross with somebody else's journey. This moment is a great moment. And particularly in CameraImage, we had so many of these great human and professional "encounters," let's say.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:06:12 PM)I believe we're all supposed to support and participate in this kind of event. Particularly this year, there was the concept of the new digital cinema, the electronic cinema. I was very happy to have the chance to present the entire Dune project, through the best video projector existing today with the Texas Instrument chip. But I can see on a screen, even if today it's the best solution, still there is a lot of journey to make in order to reach the high quality of film.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:07:53 PM)I believe that we should pursue this in two different paths: optical cinema and electronic cinema—at the same time. But trying to raise the quality level of video to the very high quality of film, and not the other way around. As, unfortunately, it seems to me the film industry is doing recently.

Moderator (Dec 16, 2000 1:08:55 PM)Did you have a chance to see any of the films in competition?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:09:01 PM)Unfortunately, I didn't see any films in competition because I arrived Thursday, December 7, and I had my own seminar about Visual Revolution in Goya en Bordeaux and Dune presenting the technology that we used to build a huge trans-light for Dune, the entire production design of Goya, completely on these new technologies.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:10:20 PM)Then the day after, I did another encounter with a student about the Univisum system, which is the new shooting system that I'm proposing for the future of video and film, having a new standard composition of 2:1.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:10:58 PM)And the last day I did present Dune, the visual effects of the entire project, in connection between electronic cinema and the progress that electronic cinema still has to do. And in order to make myself clear to the students, I did present one reel of the new edition of Apocalypse Now.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:11:47 PM)This new edition of Apocalypse Now has new editing, which will add 54 minutes more than the old version, and will be printed through the classic Technicolor dye-transfer system.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:12:10 PM)So I was able to show to the students and the cinematographers at CameraImage the best that we can have on film, which in my opinion is the dye-transfer system, and the best that we can have in video projection, which is Dune. So I was able to compare the two technologies and show to them the difference.

Frank8 (Dec 16, 2000 1:12:55 PM)Vittorio, what do you feel was your best photographed picture?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:13:11 PM)This is a question that has been posed to me several times.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:13:25 PM)First of all, I would like to make clear, I can't do photography on film. I can do cinematography.Because photography is an expression in one single image. And cinematography is writing with light and movement. This is exactly what we are doing.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:14:07 PM)Second, in answering the question, it's very difficult for me to pick just one single chapter of my own life. I believe that any one of us is mainly doing all over, always the same movie in the sense that all our creativity, we are trying to express ourselves, what the meaning of our life is.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:15:03 PM)And in doing the research, in doing every project that we can do, in reality, we are trying to understand who we are, where we come from, where we are going. So if I have to use the metaphor, the right metaphor for this question is the movie of my own life.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:15:29 PM)Because every picture, every film, is a section of my own creativity and my own life. So each one is like a segment, a sequence. So when I finish my journey, I hope that we find equilibrium. I hope I will understand myself. I hope that I will transfer to someone else, to every audience, the concept of my own life. Only after we finish the journey, that will be my film.

tomfocus (Dec 16, 2000 1:16:20 PM)In Sheltering Sky there was a love scene on a cliff, shot at 'magic hour' how many days did you come back to that site to continue shooting the scene?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:16:54 PM)Originally, we arrived at that place in the morning, with the approach of the main character to that place. After Bernardo arrives at the scene, the two main actors, it was late afternoon, and I saw there were such beautiful images, which were the shadows of the entire cliff on the landscape. It was giving the sense of infinity. Which was exactly the main concept of that scene. Of that leading character. And I said to Bernardo, let's do it right now. let's do the main master and try to capture this beautiful way, and after we can see how we can continue.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:18:23 PM)I remember we had a long crane shot, not only camera, but the camera operator and the grip's shadows were on the main character. I had very few minutes to catch that magic moment. So I asked the driver of the grip truck to move just behind the camera in order to create an elongated shadow, and I recreated the sun's scheme of light on the main character artificially.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:19:49 PM)And with the light board, the main light console, I was able to control the intensity of the artificial sunlight with the light board, in order to follow this magic symbol, which is the sun setting, the sun dying.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:20:12 PM)And we were able to catch the master that evening. Then the next day we did all the close-ups of the scene. And of course, because I was closer and I was tight, I was able to control the daylight to compare to the artificial light.

TankBoy358 (Dec 16, 2000 1:20:55 PM)Did doing a movie on Goya invoke any particularly strong emotions for you? Certainly you must respect the old master

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:21:40 PM)Well there is no doubt for a visionary, as we are, any cinematographer is, to have the chance to do the story of another visionary as a great painter, in this case Francisco Goya, is a great challenge.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:21:53 PM)But I know very well that I can't duplicate his own work. Because we're using a different media expression—cinema—and because I'm not a painter. Also we are in another period of time. So I was trying to tell his story through a new emotion, a new vision.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:22:36 PM)And I was using the concept of the memory of colors. In a sense that every one of us, when he is remembering something, is really opening the magic box that is called the unconscious. And particularly for a visionary person like a painter, there is no doubt he is making a connection between the memory and the visual memory.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:24:14 PM)He is giving to every period of his life a connection with one specific color. So, particularly, the strong emotion for him to remember the great love for the Luchessa of Alba with the color blue. Because that is the color he saw when they first met. So every time he remembers her, he sees her in this color. Or, every time he sees this color his mind goes back to her. So when I was trying to tell the story and use this concept of how we connect all our past history with some specific vision of color.

frederic (Dec 16, 2000 1:25:13 PM)Good Morning Vittorio, I am a great fan of your work ever since seeing The Conformist when it first was released here in the states. It influenced my self and my generation of cinematographers profoundly—perhaps more than any other film of that era. Will this be available in DVD anytime soon?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:25:54 PM)I really hope that Paramount will release a DVD of The Conformist. I just recently wrote a letter with Bernardo Bertolucci to Paramount. And you will have a little surprise if it happens.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:26:55 PM)A few years ago when I did the video transfer, I discovered in the original negative the scene that Bertolucci cut originally, but Paramount cut only the matrix to release the picture.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:27:26 PM)But not the original. The scene was still in the original negative. And that is why there is a delay in release of the DVD because they don't know how to translate this sequence in English without having the same actors as a few years ago. So with Bertolucci, we suggested to put just subtitles on this sequence, and release the DVD with this original scene.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:28:20 PM)It was a beautiful scene connected with colors, it was a party with the best friend of the leading character, a blind person. And in order to make a big present to somebody that can see, they put in this place all colored lights, something they can experience. So I hope the audience can enjoy this scene in the new DVD.

Callmyagent (Dec 16, 2000 1:28:54 PM)Many European DPs keep their same camera crew for many years and consider them to be part of their 'instrument' as opposed to Americans who more often switch them from one project to nother. Your thoughts?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:29:33 PM)First of all, I don't like to be called DP, because I think we are cinematographers.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:30:22 PM)Director of Photography came from a conflict between the director and the cinematography many years ago. And that generation at that time asked also to be called directors. They changed their own title from cinematographer to director of photography. I believe, in the common expression, of cinema, there's a need for only one director. And photography is an expression of single images. That's why cinematography is really exactly what we are doing. So I would love to be addressed as a "cinematographer."

Callmyagent (Dec 16, 2000 1:31:35 PM)Pardon my boo boo.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:31:38 PM)In answering the question, we have almost always for a long time the same camera crew, because there is no doubt it is like creating a family feeling around us.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:32:22 PM)I am a Cancer, and Cancer always has a great feeling for family, and also protection around himself. So I always have a great feeling for my personal family and my professional family, which is my crew.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:32:54 PM)Also, because it is a long journey what we're doing in film after film. And the chance to know each other, know how we are achieving some specific new steps, is giving us the freedom to continue more easily this journey of discovery.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:33:40 PM)What is great about cinema, before any knowledge we have, we never know where we're ending. We can prepare ourselves, we can study, we can do a long pre-production, but there is some mystery in front of us, which is a great push for our inner soul to discover. And of course, if we can do this journey with people who know you very well, they can help you during this journey of discovery.

Spidercam (Dec 16, 2000 1:34:14 PM)I have seen Dune, and it has a wonderful, dream-like, almost surrealistic quality. Do you think your use of translights is a realistic alternative to digital compositing on other films?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:35:03 PM)Originally, Dune was supposed to be shot in a real location in a desert. The second alternative was to do everything in the studio, with a full green screen studio. The chance that we have today to do this long story is really television.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:35:40 PM)Unfortunately, producers believe that big screen means big quality, small screen means small quality. So usually the budget for this mini-series—which is not the right word because it looks like we're doing something minimum. Soon television screens will be enlarged. They have already started to do so around the world. So very soon we will see in high definition on the large monitor, electronic images. So I believe we need good quality even for television.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:37:28 PM)It is very easy to do this project in the budget and schedule they proposed to us considering low quality. My fight was to be within the budget, within the schedule and raising the quality. So I proposed the translight system so we didn't need any longer to go to the real desert to shoot in the night or dawn or something. And we didn't need any longer to shoot so many sequences in a huge green screen studio, which means a lot of expense for post-production special effects.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:38:24 PM)Plus it's very difficult for the actor to really know where they are if it's only green screen around them. With translight they can see the environment around them.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:38:48 PM)I also present the possibility not to shoot in video or a normal film camera, but in Univisum system. An Univisum system saved us 25 percent of the film budget in shooting and in the laboratory. Plus, the use of the light board to control the entire lighting system from a single board, which I'm doing since One From the Heart, of 20 years ago.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:40:35 PM)So I was able to use this new technology let us say, to elevate the quality of the film. But I know very well that we can use any instrument that we have available to us, every possibility we may have in pre-production, everything we are doing during the production, and every additional work in post production. In these three stages, knowing very well what we can do will give us more freedom to express ourselves.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:41:29 PM)In other words, one doesn't mean we have to avoid the other. We have to use them all together.

Steven Poster (Dec 16, 2000 1:41:35 PM)Hi Vittorio. Recently you and I were at a demonstration of hi def equipment and 70 mm projection. I think we were all impressed with the quality of the 70 mm after looking at hi def. An equipment rep who we know said that the 70 mm looked good but that the quality of image doesn't matter to an audience. Can you comment on this?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:42:32 PM)Well I thought that presentation was very interesting that we experienced, because it was given to us in both media—electronic and optic. And more and more I am convinced there is no doubt we should respect both.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:42:50 PM)But there is no doubt electronic cinema is not there yet; it's in progress, so we should be doing every possible thing to elevate, increase the quality of the video system, until it can reach the normal standard of 35mm film today.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:43:35 PM)I also believe that when this moment comes, many small theatres will replace the film projector with a video projector. And most of the film projects today can be really done with an electronic camera and an electronic video projector. But I also believe that an audience needs to experience in a large group in a big theatre, on a large screen, an epic story, a big romance.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:44:43 PM)The audience will always need to experience in a large group of people the beauty of a large film screen. And this, in my opinion, should be done in 65mm. I'm not sure if the film speed will be 24, 30, 48 or 60—which are the different numbers we saw in several locations, but basically I believe it should be 65. So this will give us always an image to compare the quality that we always should raise.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:46:19 PM)My fear that the entire industry is going down 2K. I fear that the new project system, digital intermediate, the new Panavision Sony digital camera, which is not even 2K. My fear is that the new video projector will present a new standard of look, in conjunction with the other elements - a standard of 2K. I fear the entire high-quality film will come down to the video quality.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:47:15 PM)Instead, we should raise the video quality to film quality. I believe that we should support the Technicolor dye-transfer because it's not only the best quality we have today on film, but it is also the system that has more longevity. I believe that we should fight always to raise the quality and longevity of our images.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:48:04 PM)My best love to you, Steve.

Roberto Gusto (Dec 16, 2000 1:48:05 PM)Can you talk a little about the age of Technicolor as more than just a colorful alternative to the chiaroscuro poetry of black-and-white

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:48:35 PM)Well I personally did just one movie in black and white, my first one. But after that experience, color film is very hard to renounce. I believe it's impossible for me today.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:49:20 PM)Because I believe that our palette of expression, starting from black, is going through the entire color spectrum—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violent. Until we reach white. So the chance we have to use black and white, also the full range of color, is giving to us additional articulated language to expressing ourselves.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:50:08 PM)I experienced recently re-timing the new version of Apocalypse on dye transfer at Technicolor. And at the beginning when I did the first scene of the new material on the normal film, I was crying to see how much we lost in 25 years. And I cannot believe that we can do the normal strategy in reprinting a movie in going through interpositives, internegative, and release print. All from a negative which is 25 years old.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:51:37 PM)And I talked about all the classic Technicolor dye transfer, that they put together again in Los Angeles and as soon as I did one test, I saw the chance I had through this system of revitalizing the picture. And I'm very happy.

Mortarartist (Dec 16, 2000 1:51:49 PM)You make a very good argument for the Technicolor dye transfer system. Have you spoken with people at Technicolor about this, and what was their reaction?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:52:31 PM)Of course, I have talked quite a while about dye transfer. And right now, they are doing the transfer of Apocalypse Now on dye transfer.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:53:15 PM)And I am receiving every reel that is ready here at Technicolor in Rome and after I do my screening in Rome I can give them my comments, my corrections, for them to finalize color timing, and we are presently very close to finishing the entire film.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:54:13 PM)Technicolor is very timid at the moment in pushing an investment on this system. Probably because there is a need to use new electronic technology side by side with the old transfer system. At the moment, I believe the Technicolor people are afraid the electronic system will take over too soon for them to recoup their investment. I do not believe that myself.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:55:10 PM)I believe not only is the best quality, visual quality system today, but it is also the best system because the longevity of the color image that dye transfer adds—today, the library of the Academy, in order to restore or reprint any old picture, they can do that, thanks to an old print on dye transfer, because dye transfer doesn't fade.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:56:04 PM)So if you want to keep our expression in time for our grand-grand children, this is a technology that we should push. Unfortunately, any of the video systems invented till today, is not proven for any longevity.

Kodakguy (Dec 16, 2000 1:56:10 PM)Vittorio, what advise would you give to film school student around the world about careers in cinematagraphy? What do they need to learn?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:57:35 PM)Well, in my opinion, I am teaching at the Academy of Images in Laquila near Rome since five years ago, and normally I am leading seminars all around the world, so I know pretty well the psychology of young students.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:58:31 PM)In my opinion, they should stop thinking only of going to film school only for doing their own movies. I think every film student around the world, it's important to know the past history, in order to know really what has been done until now. Because I believe we are the representation of everyone who expressed himself in a visual art form before us.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 1:59:10 PM)Second, they should know the tools. And how they can use every possible element to express themselves. The most important thing is to understand the meaning. To understand what light means, what shadow means. From the philosopher Plato to the philosophers today, every visual aspect has its own meaning, has its own value. And we are responding emotionally.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:00:18 PM)Every single color means something. Has its own symbol. Leads the entire body to react in a different way, according to its own wave length. Every opposite element represents visually the two elements that are inside ourselves. There is always a double face in each one of us: the conscious and unconscious parts.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:01:12 PM)Every student, in my opinion, should learn every possible thing connected with vision. Music is connected with vision, because music is mainly rhythm. Without knowing rhythm, it's very difficult to understand the rhythm of different images and also the rhythm of light.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:02:09 PM)With the history of painting, it's very important to each of us to understand the word composition. Because cinema is not reality. Cinema is an expression, particularly because it is framed within one specific space. So through the entire history of painting, of photography, and cinema—we should understand how to compose one image.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:02:58 PM)They should know about philosophy. In order to understand the principle for every single visual aspect of an image. They should study architecture in order to understand the proportion that was common to that architecture during the century. It is impossible for us to link a single space, if we don't know the history of it. If we don't know the difference, say from Roman architecture from Baroque architecture.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:04:40 PM)My advice today is to use the best possible way, the time that they have to be students, to be a student. To learn. They should think of making their movie afterwards. Not during this student time. That period to be a student is wonderful. And they should understand later that we always are students.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:04:59 PM)Even if I am a teacher today, I am a student. And I am very happy to be a student.

abdiel (Dec 16, 2000 2:05:06 PM)Are they going to re-release Apocalypse Now in the theaters?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:05:16 PM)Yes.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:05:29 PM)My knowledge is that next year, I don't know exactly when, there will be a new release of Apocalypse in the theatres, and every print will be a dye transfer print. And this is great because normally every movie experience is a life experience.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:06:40 PM)But particularly Apocalypse, it was so far away from my normal home, it was so long, so difficult, so expensive, so dangerous—but at the same time so beautiful—that without any doubt it marked very strongly my own life.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:07:21 PM)And one section of this experience will last in the cutting room. And now that we have a chance to revitalize the entire project, including almost one hour of unseen sequences in addition to the already-known version, I think is wonderful.

danarchy (Dec 16, 2000 2:07:23 PM)Mr. Storaro, do you see the political structure and intent of cinematographers unions today prepared to take on the digital age? Is it the role of the unions to be the voice that calls for quality not quantity?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:08:28 PM)First of all it is impossible to divide quality and quantity.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:08:49 PM)Second, I believe that, yes, the ICG should be very well aware of the quality, not only of our expression, but also the quality of our life. And defending ourselves in order not to be killed on the set. I mean, it should be very clear, that the normal human being can't work for so many hours.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:09:25 PM)Yes, it should defend our quality of expression because we depend on that, it's part of our own life. There is no doubt that, particularly if we can reach together between the ASC and the ICG to elevating the figure of the cinematographer, as co-author of the film, has as been recognized in all Europe. The figure of the musician, the writer and the director, in my opinion, should have recognition as a co-author of images. Because we are expressing ourselves through the language of light. Without light, an image cannot be seen. Cinema is a language of images. And without images, there is no cinema.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:11:42 PM)If we reach this level of co-authors, that means that nobody can touch without our permission, the quality of our work. For example, every movie that we do, we should be the one to do timing and transferring, and it doesn't always happen.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:12:46 PM)But particularly, along the time the industry is re-transferring into a new media, our movie, we should be the one to continue our work. Nobody should interfere with that. Because the cinematographer is the only one with enough knowledge to adequately move from one media to another, film, video, DVD, laser disc, whatever—to respect the original intention of the director and the other co-authors.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:13:08 PM)Today, often someone is retransferring. A video operator is transferring our film, completely changing the meaning, and we don't even know. So absolutely I believe the Int'l Guild should defend the quality, more than the quantity of our work.

nd sedan (Dec 16, 2000 2:13:40 PM)How do you approach change, if at all, when you are photographing television formats?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:14:57 PM)I personally am not making a major change in cinematography and doing a movie for television. I am very well aware of the limit, the limitations video has today as compared to film. So I know that my palette is restricted, and I shouldn't go to the screen. Apart from that, I am personally using the main principal visual vocabulary in both media.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:16:01 PM)I am trying to use always the Univisum system in order that in the near future, the composition will not be altered if it's going to be shown on a film screen or a video screen.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:17:00 PM)The images are not digitized. The image is just printed from the original negative to Technicolor matrix. And from matrix will be dye transferred to film. So it is an analog system.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:17:38 PM)After the release on film screen, it will be video transferred on high definition, which I have already prepared the master, and released on DVD, so that will be all digital.

Ave790 (Dec 16, 2000 2:17:46 PM)Has Univisium been used by any other cinematographer or producer?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:19:03 PM)I believe that yes, in the beginning I felt Italian. But since I have really started to express myself in cinema, I realized that my expression doesn't have any borders. I just feel I'm a human being.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:19:19 PM)And we always do politics. Even when we don't want. Even when we're not aware of it. Because anything we do has its own visual meaning. So in using lighting one way, a silhouette in another way, using a warm color or a cool color, we do politics. In using the visual vocabulary, we are suggesting different emotions. So we are, in a subliminal way, telling that this character or situation is positive or negative. So we always do politics anyhow.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:21:36 PM)My nationality by now—not only because the next ASC Lifetime Achievement Award will recognize me as a cinematographer, not an Italian cinematographer. I am a citizen of the world. And I think it's wonderful that I'm being recognized for my own expression, not for my nationality. I do believe that cinematography is really our language of expression, which is international.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:22:35 PM)Well, I was very touched by Gianni in Italy and without any doubt Rick Toland from the USA, in completely two different ways.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:23:25 PM)Rick Toland in an ultra realistic way to use light in creating a very strong visual expression. He went beyond German Expressionists.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:24:09 PM)And Gianni—sorry, one more person to mention, during the 1950s, Aldo Graziati. He was mainly working with Luchino Visconti, one of the most great personalities of Italian cinema. Mainly, Mr. Aldo was connected with photography and painting.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:25:25 PM)But the main influence was from Gianni because he was a great revolutionary. He really changed the way of the use of light in 1960, inventing new, completely simple and free way of lighting a film.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:26:51 PM)In my opinion, my personality used all the knowledge about not only then but every other cinematographer that I was watching all my life, and I believe that I have something very personal - that there is a connection between the visual vocabulary and the content of the picture itself. But putting myself into the film.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:27:33 PM)So I was very well aware of the story being told through the language of light, at the same time searching for my own truth, the meaning of my life over the years, the search for equilibrium. But I'm still traveling.

Burbank Hank (Dec 16, 2000 2:27:43 PM)Congratulations on receiving the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. While you are in Los Angeles to recieve that award, will you be participating in any seminars or lectures we can attend?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:28:37 PM)At the moment, I know there will be an open house at the ASC on the 17th that everyone is invited to. I will be happy to be connected with any event that ASC is putting together.

magic-hour (Dec 16, 2000 2:29:13 PM)Do you dream in color, Vittorio? And when you dream, are your dreams about cinematography, about your work? How much of your ideas and meaning comes from this area of consciousness?

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:29:37 PM)I believe that we all dream in color. It's only very difficult to remember because our unconscious side is keeping a division from our conscious side.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:30:23 PM)I had an experience of waking up usually around 4 a.m., when I do have unsolved questions, whether personal or in the creative area. Usually I am receiving from my preconscious around 4:00 a.m. much information, advice, solutions to what my problem is at that moment. I'm being given energy from my unconscious every day. And this is great, because this is really the transfer that everything is inside me, unknown to myself, is given to my conscious part.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:32:27 PM)I do believe that my journey with Bernado Bertolucci was really connected with this part of ourselves. He always is telling the story, for every movie, not completely told. He keeps some part not revealed completely. And I believe he is trying always to use symbols. Symbols are our visual vocabulary to recognize what is inside of ourselves. And knowing the transfer between the visual meaning the visual symbology is really what I try to do all the time. It was really the main link between the two of us.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:34:26 PM)So I don't know if I'm growing up during the night according to my unconscious side, or if I'm growing up during the day according to my conscious one. But I do believe the balance between the two of them is my equilibrium. This is the result of my research.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:35:08 PM)My best wishes to everyone, and I hope to see you on screen. Not only my old friends at ASC, but also the young cinematographers. A great chance for us all around the world to speak to each other, because we are learning all the time.

Vittorio Storaro (Dec 16, 2000 2:35:22 PM)Thank you very much for reading my own confession.